Evolution Tournament Series - Chapter Three!

[Al-T]

Just because constituent parts you didn't have knowledge of were allowed in the recipe to make the CHoM has no bearing on anything. You were specifically advised you could make the CHoMs. There was no mention of full understanding of all the constituent parts required to do so. What's the big deal?

Analogy: I can make Moules Mariniere but I don't know how to make the wine that goes into it because I don't have to.

This type of nit-picking is beginning to irritate me since it is not neccessary and is not encouraging me to continue hosting this tournament. Before I say anything I may regret later I am going to stop typing.

[Montex]

Typing is the only thing we can do... for the next 84 days until act 4 starts Lets enjoy it!

[John11]

This tournament is extremely great and I appreciate the work you and hans have put into it, but part of being a tournament host is making sure the participants understand the rules. I don't think it's fair to call this nit-picking.
Honestly, I still feel a bit confused on the rules, and I just want to get things straight before I spend a bunch of time doing something that I wasn't allow to do in the first place.
Can we use elixirs to make the crafted rings? It would seems so since you have made them, but elixirs aren't in the equipment list. Going further, can we make demonic crafted rings since they use demon keys and boxes? Is the rule basically that if we can find it as a drop we can use it in a cube recepie?
Your answer to my previous question might answer my next question. Based upon your analogy it makes me think I shouldn't have made my unique charm (that I needed for my mega CHoM) using a cube recipe since we didn't know about uniques. It sounds like I needed to find it. Is that correct or was it fine to make it?

[Al-T]

Some good points you make there.

So I'll try and clarify the rules:

Crafted items and the recipes to create them are all allowed apart from the Megaload recipes. They are just too powerful for the time being and part of the idea behind this tournament is to get everyone to use different methods and items than they usually would to bring out your creativity. Your CHoMs are also allowed but other unique charms are not to be used for the time being. You get access to all uniques apart from Zy-El artifacts in Chapter 4. Megaload items will still not be allowed in Chapter 4.

Hopefully that answers everyone's questions for now but please ask if you still have anything you are wondering about. Also, if possible, please ask before making/using an item if you are unsure.

[John11]

I got to 255 and then started making my oath and word. I gambled and upgraded to make them in a sacred armor and a corona. I was going to put an oath in my bow, but I decided to try Ripcord instead. After that I added some life, mana, and max damage to my crafted belt and dove into the side quest.
After upgrading and downgrading the cards collected I ended up with:
7 of a kind 2s * 3 = 5000*3 = 15000
7 of a kind 3s * 1 = 5000*1 = 5000
1 of a kind 4 = 0
Total: 20000

Players 127 + Gained 16 levels
.005 + .0016 = .0066 EM

Code: Select all

Player             Character/Class        CFT    CRF      MAJ    MEG    AC      SQ     EM     TOTAL
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John11             PewPew/Ama           23570    500     1500   3000  5000   20000  1.0166    54459
Montex             Xeon/Barb            24448    500     1500   3000  5000   15000  1.016     50239
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    24818    500     1500   3000  5000       0  1.015     35340
Al-T               Dora/Ama             22440    500     1500   3000  5000       0  1.010     32764

Back in the lead
(Until Hellwolf does the sidequest at least )

[Hellwolf_36]

Hopefully that answers everyone's questions for now but please ask if you still have anything you are wondering about. Also, if possible, please ask before making/using an item if you are unsure.

Don't get too hard on the others and vice-versa. We just feel that the rules for this Chapter needed some "revisions". No offense, but it's never a good idea to assume that things are 100% clear and we will have no objections to what we see.

My opinion on the matter is this: I have pretty much understood the rules for every chapter up to this point. Chapter 1 for instance, I saw I could only make Runewords and a Chom once Cain was beaten. The Sidequest was basically a one-attempt run to Inner Cloister with no equip and combat was limited to escaping and last-resort when monsters approach at melee distance.

Chapter 2 was also simple. Chapter 3 had a little too many "loopholes" that me and the other guys didn't like, hence why we had all these arguments.

From what I have seen of Chapter 4, its relatively straightforward. Sets can be us

My advice is to double check the next chapter's rules and insure that there are no possible loopholes to avoid this dilemma. I also suggest to everyone to stop quarreling over this matter and take Al-T's advice on this matter and just ask, but not to the point that Wolfdruid did in Chapter 1. We are here to enjoy this tournament and have fun, not snap at each other for something I deem... trivial.

[wolfwing]

bleah, still in chapter 2, thought I would have time, and made some progress but RL been keeping me busy, I hope to some time this week or so to get onto chapter 3, will keep updated.

[Hellwolf_36]

Back in the lead
(Until Hellwolf does the sidequest at least )

I hope you enjoyed first place for the time allowed, but unfortunately I beat the sidequest

Overall, it wasn't too bad. I had to do some circling to kill off the Majats and Umberhulks due to the massive HP they had. I also didn't take any fatal blows, but I had to re-cast my Energy Shield constantly (~1800 mana doesn't help, even if you got 20k HP).

The creepy thing is I got the exact same multiplier gain and card score as you did, except for 1 more card which was enough to pair up a 3.

Code: Select all

Player             Character/Class        CFT    CRF      MAJ    MEG    AC      SQ     EM     TOTAL
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    24818    500     1500   3000  5000   20050  1.0216    56053
John11             PewPew/Ama           23570    500     1500   3000  5000   20000  1.0166    54459
Montex             Xeon/Barb            24448    500     1500   3000  5000   15000  1.016     50239
Al-T               Dora/Ama             22440    500     1500   3000  5000       0  1.010     32764

3 screenshots have been added to my album.




Bonus:

1. Attempted on Players 127 = +0.005 to multiplier
2. 4 x 7 of a kind (3 sets of 2 and 1 set of 3) = +20000 to SQ
3. 1 x 2 of a kind (a pair of 3s) = +50 to SQ
4. Gained 16 levels = +0.0016 to multiplier

Total: 20050 to SQ, +.0066 to multiplier.

Now I'll wait for Chapter 4.

[Al-T]

What's going on? I logged in and clicked on "Reply" and was redirected to login again.

Yesterday I posted a reply here and sent a PM to Hellwolf_36 but it is not in my "Outbox", "Sent Items" or "Message Drafts". I take it you didn't get a message from me Hellwolf_36?

I guess I'll have to let Onyx know.

[QL]

It is very strange. I saw your message yesterday and was very surprised today when didn't find any trace. I even thought you both deleted your messages to conceal MF your characters have.

[Al-T]

There was a known issue but I don't think the new hardware has sorted all the problems as the discussion is ongoing in this post.

Just navigating from my recent post in that thread back to here logged me out again and I had to log back in again to post this

[Hans]

I have heard about the issue. I have not encountered it.

[Al-T]

It's sorted now

2nd attempt to post the following:

I also did the chapter 3 side quest at Players 127 but my results are not as impressive as those who have gone before me:

Tcards.gif

2 x 7 of a kind (2's) = 10,000
1 x 2 of a kind (4's) = 50
1 x 3 of Clubs = 0
Total = 10,050

Players 127: 0.005 + 15 levels gained * 0.0001 = +0.0065 to EM

Code: Select all

Player             Character/Class        CFT    CRF      MAJ    MEG    AC      SQ     EM     TOTAL
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    24818    500     1500   3000  5000   20050  1.0216    56053
John11             PewPew/Ama           23570    500     1500   3000  5000   20000  1.0166    54459
Montex             Xeon/Barb            24448    500     1500   3000  5000   15000  1.016     50239
Al-T               Dora/Ama             22440    500     1500   3000  5000   10050  1.0165    43191

I'll have to do much better in future side quests but there should be plenty time for me to make up the lost ground.

Just as a matter of interest, how much MF did everyone else have when doing this quest? I had 853%.

P.S. Hellwolf_36....I sent you a PM

[Hellwolf_36]

My post was nuked....

619% MF is what I had for the SQ.

============================

As for the login problem, I noticed this problem for sometime, but I didn't bother speaking about it because I didn't exactly know who to contact and I was busy with my 40 hour work week.

[Ignaitus]

Those kind of issues would go here if you come across them.
viewforum.php?f=2

The server had issues but it was solved in about 2 days.

[Al-T]

Anyone got any issues with me announcing Chapter 4 can be started in 2 weeks time

[Hellwolf_36]

Go right ahead. I'll have the chapter destroyed in 2 weeks after that

[John11]

Anyone got any issues with me announcing Chapter 4 can be started in 2 weeks time

Start it now before I have to back to classes

[Al-T]

Hmmm....not right away. Please give me a couple of days to sort some things out and you'll be able to start it afer that. Probably sometime this weekend or the beginning of next week

I'll make the announcement as soon as I can. This gives the other players a chance to finish Act1/2 but if they don't we will go ahead anyway since the tournament has been at a standstill for too long.

N.B. It seems every Zy-El tournament has a large amount of players that make a start but then only 3 or 4 make the commitment to carry on. Is it the mod difficulty Is it the rules Is it something else I don't get it
--------

[EDIT]
Chapter 4 is now active and the rules for Chapter 5 have been posted in the main threads.

Happy Zy-Elling

[JrEye]

Ive been lazy lol thats why I havent advanced, im trying really i am lol

EDIT: That and I blame Swords and Potions for my laziness.

[Al-T]

Ive been lazy lol thats why I havent advanced, im trying really i am lol

EDIT: That and I blame Swords and Potions for my laziness.

Yes you are very trying

I have a different dilemma...I haven't done anything on the Wiki properly for ages and I am feeling guilty about that but I am trying to keep the mod alive by hosting and participating in tournaments.

[JrEye]

i know how you feel about the wiki, im hoping to get a more extensive screening of RWs soon maybe. Least I will try before boot camp

[Hellwolf_36]

Laziness and dedication are the 2 main problems with this tournament and it's current status of participation.

Some players are lazy and some players just don't have to the time to play it due to outside affairs.

Most of them are still in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. Only 4 of us caught up to this point.

[Al-T]

Heads up.....I added a note to the rules covering the use, or rather, non-use of Megaload recipes.

[Clersius]

Graduation day! Yay, finally in Chapter Three. Bloodmist's first act was to create this belt, something he had been chomping at the bit to do for well over 100 levels. Next, he created this ring, and this ring to further augment his Static Field chances. Static Field is king, vive le roi! The rings only have 7% chance to cast instead of 10% because I decided to try my best not to use any unique items in Blood's crafting endeavors until Chapter Four. Same reason that the belt is 4 x level rather than 4.5 x level.

Those items created, he went back and did some Duriel runs to gather more elixirs for cube scroll upgrades. I have been neglecting his cube scrolls, and they are really starting to pile up. There are close to 1500 commons in his stash now. Many of them I am keeping, like all of the unique ring, amulet, and jewel scrolls, but most of them need to be upgraded to uncommons and on up the chain.

After 20-ish elixir runs on Duriel, Blood's excess commons had been slashed nearly in half. I decided that the remainder of the elixirs needed could be obtained through Mephisto runs, and back to Kurast we went. I also decided that I would like to get caught up to the leaders in this adventure. After doing that, I can come back and do more Duriel runs, or Mephisto runs, or gold runs, or whatever other busy work is required, all at my leisure. With that in mind, I set players back down to p1 and plowed through the Spider Forest, the Spider Cavern, the Great Marsh, the Flayer Jungle, and the Flayer Dungeon at roughly mach 3. I am fairly certain that the design team at Blizzard specifically had Whirlwind in mind when they created those annoying little dolls and all their kin. That is the greatest skill for getting through the first part of Act III!! I would imagine that Multishot does a pretty darn good job at it, too, but Whirlwind just mows down entire corridors of them at a time. If he had a polearm equipped, with its longer reach, I can only imagine the swath of destruction that Bloodmist would leave behind! I think it took “a little less than half-an-hour” to get to Lower Kurast from the time he left the docks. That's eons less time than it has ever taken me before.

Back in Lut Gholein, Meshif told me he had a fondness for jade figurines...

Among other things!

...I would show him your figurine.

Deckard... please... I'm just not that kinda girl! *flutters his Barbarian eyelashes coquettishly*

...here, I've had this statuette of a golden bird for years. I consider it a fair exchange!

Hey, thanks! *rubs his thumb admiringly along the bird's beak, getting something yellow and glittery all over his skin* Hey, what is this? Paint?! I'll BET you consider it a fair exchange! *tosses Meshif into the Ancient One's reservoir of algy*

The Gidbinn found. Lam Esen's Tome recovered. Mace Mastery is the first skill that Bloodmist maxed! Quite useful, oddly enough. Shield Major Charm of Making created and in use, replacing the two Shield Minor ChoMs he was using to this point. Council Executed for Crimes against Barbariety.

Blood had all of the ingredients for his Mega Charm of Making already lined up except for the unique charm, which is always a pain to manufacture. He put together three more perfect gems, used a couple of common cube scrolls to create a unique ring and amulet, and used this recipe:

[uni Ring] + [uni Amulet] + [Demon Box] + [Perfect Gem] x 3 + [Elixir] x 3 + [Ith Rune] -> new [uni Hex Charm]

I purposefully used the recipe for a hex charm to be certain that I would not be at all tempted to stash it away for use in the next chapter – the odds of wanting to keep whatever small or narrow charm he made would be too high to take the risk! Healer Mega Charm of Making created and tucked away in stash (no way he has room for that behemoth in inventory!).

With those scoring components created, on he went through the Durance, killing very little on the way. Upon Mephisto's death, he was kind enough to drop a pair of Zy runes, currency of record for the foreseeable future.

So now what to do? Level up to wear Oath/Word runewords? Gather gold? Hoard Zy runes? Collect more elixirs? The best course of action seems to be to prepare for the side quest, and do so while gaining the fewest levels possible. That will give Bloodmist the best chance to gain levels while he he's doing the side quest. To prepare, he will at least need the +life BoCL on his belt maxed out, so that's what he'll do first. Players set to 1, check. Four tall charms with a total of 98% Faster Run/Walk on them put into inventory, check. Here we go!

Port in to Durance level two, cast Battle Orders, switch secondary mouse skill to Leap. Run like the dickens through the monster slalom to level three entrance, dive through. Leap off of the platform and head for the northwest corner hallway, follow it allll the way around, Leaping when necessary, until he gets to the portal. Leap across, engage Mephisto, slaughter him in double-quick time, pick up all the loot, put it in the stash so inventory is clear for next time, restart. Unfortunately, he only has six inventory slots open, so if any Demon Keys drop, it slows me down a little, as I have to manually pick up something and put it into the cube from the floor.

Three runs later, I reviewed the process. The experience gain was at a minimum, true, but in order to squeeze the most out of Mephisto runs, the players setting needs to be 16. Changing the setting every time he enters Meph's presence would be way too annoying, and consume too much time. Therefore, players will be set on 16 and just left there. As long as I don't log all the way out of the game, the players setting will stay at the last manual setting, even though it will show players 1 in the automap overlay.

An added perk of p16 is that the monsters have a lot more life. That means that every six seconds Blood can pause briefly and bang on one of them, preferably a big one (easy to target) with lots of life (so it doesn't die). Drakes are ideal, Majats are not bad either, and even Blood Lords have a good amount of life. He does not want to kill them, incurring an experience gain, but he does want to keep his health ball filled, and every swing of his weapon charges up Frenzy so that he runs faster!

Leap is awesome for getting out of a lockdown, and for avoiding a traffic snarl in the first place, but it turns out that, compared to how bloody fast Blood is moving while Frenzied, Leap is extraordinarily slow. Really, it's like a slow-motion scene from The Matrix, it's so slow. Note to self: avoid Leap like the plague, but do use it when absolutely necessary. I don't know if a higher level of Leap would allow him to jump over the chasm between the two walkways in Durance level 3, and I'm not about to sink more points into it to find out, but that would shave another 5 seconds off of his time, at least.

At first I was worried that Bremm Sparkfist's Conviction Aura (I think it's Conviction... the green aura that lowers magical defenses) would add risk to the equation (I was imagining Meph casting his Ice Ball at a Convicted Bloodmist just after he Lept over the moat, one-shotting him), but it has not so far, and I've since stopped worrying about it.

Blood emptied his cube, then did these runs until he could not carry any more loot. The result? 24 Zy runes in 16 runs, taking a total of 31 minutes. 1.5 Zy runes per run, 1.94 minutes per run, 0.774 Zy runes per minute. To quote a good friend from my past, “That don't suck!” Barbie Power! I'm so in love with Bloodmist right now... I had no idea he would be this efficient and this much fun. The only “down” side is that he gained about 7 levels. Normally, that would be wonderful, but not in this case.

Mephisto doesn't drop any gold at p16, and Blood is not killing anything else, so there is no income. Therefore, all of the money for the perfect gems necessary to create the Cube Locks for belt upgrades will have to come from the other loot. Demon Keys only sell for 22,501 gold, so those are not much help. That means selling enough Zy runes to cover those costs. Zy runes sell for 673,793 gold. It takes 18 flawed gems to make two flawless gems, and those 18 flawed gems cost 243,000 gold. The two flawless plus an elixir make the perfect gem.

The maximum +life BoCL multiplier that a belt will take is 31.875. This is so close to 32, a multiple of 4, that there is almost no point in trying to get to 31.5 to keep from “wasting” any resources. Creating the belt gave it a multiplier of four, so I only need to add seven more multiples of four to max it. That means seven cube locks, which means I need seven Zy runes, 49 perfect gems, and 49 elixirs. But each of the gems also requires an elixir, so I need to double the number of elixirs to 98. I already have all of the crafted rings and amulets for applying the enchantment to the belt, as I've saved almost every single ring and amulet that has ever dropped in Blood's career (apart from the second side quest). However, the perfect gem used in the enchantment will have to be added into the calculations. That adds one more perfect gem and one more elixir per Cube Lock, or 7 of each for the entire project, for a total of 56 perfect gems (which is 13,608,000 gold) and 105 elixirs.

We can easily see that the limiting reagent in this equation is not Zy runes at all, but rather elixirs! If I spent zero gold on elixirs, I would have to do 105/3 = 35 Meph runs to get them all. However, I will have excess Zy runes then, so I will be able to sell some of them to pay for some of the elixirs, which will reduce the total number of runs. Now let's figure out how many runs it will actually take...

The easiest parts to acquire are the Zy runes. Seven of them will take 7/1.5 = about 5 runs. After those are squirreled away, the next runes can be sold to pay for the gems. 13,608,000/673,793 = about 21 Zy runes, and 21/1.5 = 14 runs to get them. After 19 runs (5+14), 57 elixirs will have been accumulated, so I'll only need 48 more. I'll use the following equation to figure out how many runs it will take to fill that order:

75,000 * 48 = (1.5 * 673,793 + 3 * 75,000) * Runs → 3,600,000 = 1,235,690 * Runs → Runs = 2.9, about 3 more runs.

The monetary value of 48 elixirs (on the left) is the same as the monetary value of a single run worth of Zy runes and elixirs times how many runs (on the right)? Three!

So to create all seven Cube Locks, Bloodmist will have to make 5+14+3 = 22 runs, assuming the average of 1.5 Zy runes per run holds. That is not bad at all, considering he's already made most of those. Even starting from scratch, it would take him 45 minutes to collect the materials necessary for enchanting his belt with +life BoCL seven times. Using similar reasoning, I calculated that to enchant his belt with +124 to all skills would take around 126 runs That is 4.5 hours of solid Meph runs, not counting doing the actual combining of gems and cube locks, and the crafting of the belt itself. That is a serious time commitment. Not to mention the fact that I don't have 30 additional crafted rings and amulets after using some for the +life BoCL.

Ah well, enough theorizing, time to do a few more Meph runs and then some enchanting!

[EDIT2]
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I've left something out... I died on the sands of Act II, but I had not yet graduated from Act I, so my death counts against a perfect score in Act I. Therefore, I completed Act II with a "perfect score," at least for that chapter, which means at the start of this chapter, I am allowed to add 0.005 to my EM in both tables. Doing so now, and when someone points out the flaw in my logic that I cannot locate at present, I'll take it out again! I hope there is no flaw, however...

[EDIT3]
Ok, I found the flaw in my own logic... but it was a double flaw, so now it's getting kinda confusing! There is no way I could have died on the sands of Act II without being in Act II. Duh. So I died in Act II, which means I cannot claim the 0.005 addition in Act III. However, that also means that I completed Act I with a perfect score, starting Act II with a multiplier of 1.0050. Then I died and lost 0.005, falling back to 1.0000. But then the Act I SQ was successfully completed, which bumped it back up to 1.0050

I am not keen on disrupting the flow of Chapter Two just to try fixing the table, so perhaps this explanation of what happened will be sufficient, with the addition of:

• 25214 (score from Chapter II) * 1.0050 = 25340, the CFT for this chapter.

Code: Select all

Player             Character/Class        CFT    CRF      MAJ    MEG    AC      SQ     EM     TOTAL
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    24818    500     1500   3000  5000   20050  1.0216    56053
John11             PewPew/Ama           23570    500     1500   3000  5000   20000  1.0166    54459
Montex             Xeon/Barb            24448    500     1500   3000  5000   15000  1.0160    50239
Al-T               Dora/Ama             22440    500     1500   3000  5000   10050  1.0165    43191
Clersius           Bloodmist/Barb       25340    500     1500   3000     0       0  1.0050    30492

----------
[EDIT]

This update is going to make this post really long, but... c'est la vie!

I had Blood run through another 20-25 Mephisto runs until he got to level 200. Spent some of my afternoon putting Cube Locks together and maxed out his belt's +life BoCL and put on +4 all skills to see how much that affected his stats. It wasn't much of a difference, so I'll wait until after the side quest to upgrade it further.

In preparation for the side quest, I once again removed Blood's Icer ChoM, as well as his Brambles gloves, so that there will be no chance of shattering any corpses!

Replaced the gloves with a “Prayer Offering” runeword in 300 defense ogre gauntlets. The gmj was a 25% enhanced damage jewel with +3 replenish life and +9 strength. The Ohm and Lo runes were obtained through downgrading a pair of Zy runes; the Shael rune from a Ral to Shael common scroll.

In place of the Icer, I added in another Slayer minor for more crushing blow (95% chance now) and a Destroyer minor to augment the deadly strike from the Prayer Offering runeword (108% chance). 5.4k to 19.5k normal hits, but every hit will be deadly, so 10k to 39k damage per hit with 160% IAS until Frenzy kicks in and boosts it to 250%. Damage should be a non-issue at this point.

24k life with 44k under Battle Orders will hopefully be enough to weather the p127 storm that is coming, but if not, he can pull a couple of those junky Gigantor charms out of storage.

Blood set players to 127, summoned his little friend, ported to Travincal, started fighting his way towards the entrance to Durance level one, dinged 201, and then I decided to just port him in to the Durance level two waypoint instead. So he started his attempt at the side quest at level 201.

I was undecided as to whether or not it would be legal to go and find an experience shrine outside of the Durance, and I did not want to wait for an unknown amount of time for a ruling, so I decided not to do it. Fate smiled on Bloodmist's shiny, bald head, though, for within 20 minutes of starting his run, there it was, the Holy Grail itself, an experience shrine! It took a while to run back to it over and over again, especially from level three, but it was worth every second, let me tell you.

I had a lot of real life interruptions, but those aside, it still took a long, long, long time to slog through the piles of monsters in there. Life was never an issue, even surrounded by Majats three deep. The life ball did bounce around from 44k down to 35k, but his life leech maxes it again in two or three hits, which takes less than a quarter of a second (assuming his blows land). Bloodmist's trusty sidekick, Mr. Fire Golem, though he died three times, is one tough cookie! He can take some serious beatings, and his deaths were long, slow, drawn-out processes. Sad? Maybe, but that's his job! Distract the mobs of baddies while Blood sifts through the wreckage or beats on the perimeters of the Circles of Death that surround Mr. Golem.

Even with four sources of static field, permanent deadly strike, and 95% crushing blow, the high-life monsters take a good while to beat down. The 25% flee on Blood's weapons meant that he basically had to always find an angle to attack that would send them fleeing against another monster, against a Fake Stash (aka Mimic), or into a corner, or he would be chasing them halfway across Hell! If there is ever another quest in which he will need to make use of Find Item, I am making different weapons for him. Causing monsters to flee was the second most annoying thing about this side quest.

The first most annoying thing about it was... Majats! They don't need Hit Causes Monster to Flee, as they do it allll on their own when their life gets low. At least when Blood's weapon causes it, the monster will always try to run directly away from him. When Majats decide to do it on their own, they can pick any direction they want in a 150 degree arc, meaning the only way to contain them is in a corner. Do you know how many corners there are in Durance three? Me neither, but it's not many, and nowhere near enough. I thought that I would never finish chasing down those damnable bastards!

The third most annoying thing about this experience was the fact that Find Item yielded one confirmed Treasure Card – a Joker. There were two others that might have been attributable to Find Item, but even so, that makes at most three total. I would have been better off finishing in a fifth of the time and preserving some modicum of sanity by using freeze target. Ah well.

Bloodmist finished the quest at level 229, for a total of 28 levels gained. I figured that starting lower would net a few more levels, but I did not expect it to be that many more. I suspect that most, if not all, of my predecessors did not enjoy the benefits of an experience shrine, either. I think that playing in Pure Grind made me hyper-aware of the importance of fighting under that banner, which is why I took the time to run all the way back through the mazes and then all the way forward again to where the action was in order to keep it fresh.

His magic find was a mere pittance, at 192%, but playing in the Treasure Hunter's mini made it clear that TCard drops have no connection whatsoever with MF.

The scoring drops looked like this before upgrading/downgrading, with 2s on the top two rows, then 3s, then 4s, and Jokers at the bottom (obviously!). Converted the 4s to 2s, the Jokers to 2s, and left the seven 3s as they were. Here are the results after upgrading/downgrading, with 2s in the top three rows as well as along the bottom, and 3s in the middle. Very satisfying haul. I must say that I am mystified as to why Al-Tisaur's drops were so low compared to everyone else's. He must have been robbed of a full complement of monsters on his run. :| Al, you could have downgraded your 4s to 3s and had three-of-a-kind for 250 points instead of just the pair for 50 points. Doing that would have destroyed your 4s, though, and perhaps you wanted to use them later.

Using Hellwolf's list example – Bonus:

1. Completed the side quest at players 127 = +0.005 to EM.
2. 4 x 7-of-a-kind (three sets of 2s and one set of 3s) = +20,000 to SQ.
3. 1 x 6-of-a-kind (six extra 2s) = +2000 to SQ for a total of +22,000.
4. Gained 28 levels = +0.0028 to EM, for a total of +0.0078.

If I didn't believe it before, at this point I really have to start believing that coming in late to the tournament has put me at an advantage by allowing me to prepare well in advance for what I know is upcoming. Certainly the drops are random and unaffected by the timeline, but the multiplier is higher due to foreknowledge that a lower starting level would produce higher level gains.

I think that I will close the books on Chapter Three, enter Chapter Four, and then come back and do Mephisto runs if (when) I need to do so. Maxing the +all skills on Blood's belt will probably be my next project, perhaps throwing in some +damage BoCl. That will have to be removed later, and may not be necessary at all once the +skills are done. I would like to ask, if anyone is reading this who has experience playing Barbarians, if maxing +skills on his belt is ok, or if it will throw him over the damage cap too quickly? It will be a pain to remove them, one class at a time, which is why I'm hoping for some input from others.

The forums are pretty ghostly the last few days, so I'm not sure anyone is around right now, but if there are any lurkers, then good luck to you in your adventures!

Code: Select all

Player             Character/Class        CFT    CRF      MAJ    MEG    AC      SQ     EM     TOTAL
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clersius           Bloodmist/Barb       25340    500     1500   3000  5000   22000  1.0128    58074
Hellwolf_36        Blivarticcil/Sorc    24818    500     1500   3000  5000   20050  1.0216    56053
John11             PewPew/Ama           23570    500     1500   3000  5000   20000  1.0166    54459
Montex             Xeon/Barb            24448    500     1500   3000  5000   15000  1.0160    50239
Al-T               Dora/Ama             22440    500     1500   3000  5000   10050  1.0165    43191